Spring Trickles On

Although we have some cloud we need more!  My god you must all think I am just always moaning about the weather on this blog.... well I suppose I am. But a good spring on patch is completely dependent on the weather. A bit of rain would be ideal but I can't see that coming, so just some thick cloud would be nice...

Yesterday there was a bit of action, mostly Wheatear-action, and this was probably more to do with the cold NW wind than the bit of cloud. When there's a strong head wind migrants are far more likely to need to drop in for a refuel before heading on, than if there's little/no wind. I guess flying into the wind uses more energy?  It was really nice to see a load of Wheatears again because they've been scarce since my Wheatear binge on 24th March. There were at least 14 in the valley yesterday, with most (eight at least) at Colyford Common, one at Seaton Marshes and five in the ploughed field opposite Colyford WTW.  

I did also manage to add Sedge Warbler to mine (and the Patch's) year list yesterday, not before time, with one singing on the Borrow Pit. Plus there was a Common Sand flying around here which would have been another new-in migrant.  The final spike of interest for me yesterday were two Goosanders on Black Hole Marsh at dusk, but not the two from the previous night as one of these was a fine adult drake.  This makes me think that the run of Goosander sightings over the last couple of days stem from the same four birds I had drift down the river late on the 27th March (a drake and three females).

This morning I was up and out early again, despite the lack of cloud, and again overall it was quiet but there were a few snippets of interest. Even if I see nothing though being out and about here is ALWAYS a pleasure, especially early in the day when there are few other people to ruin it about...

The Borrow Pit (pictured above) produced the singing Sedge Warbler again and the six Cattle Egrets having another lie in. A Willow Warbler singing here was one of five that I've seen/heard this morning, which is five more than I noted yesterday!

Black Hole Marsh gave a couple of surprises, with our first Green Sandpiper of the year dropping in calling at about 06:45...

And from the Tower Hide my 11th patch Pintail of the year, which is tons by Axe standards! Ten of them have been drakes which is nice...

I ended my last post with Venus, so I will end this one with Jupiter which was showing just below the moon last night...

And here's basically the same pic just with a different shutter speed, as I wanted to try and capture some of the cloud...

I struggled to get a good photo of Jupiter on its own, this is my best effort as you can see three of its largest moons...

And roll on tomorrow. Spring is great as with each day comes a whole lot more potential...

In Search Of The Purple One

Here's a map...

You will notice two different types of symbols on this map of the East Devon/West Dorset coast.

The red lines represent the coastal boundaries of our patch, between the two is a distance of 10km which is quite a lot of coastline.

The blue dots represent where Purple Sandpipers are currently over wintering.  Do you notice a pattern?  I certainly do. Either side of our patch and you will undoubtedly see a Purple Sandpiper even if you spend the day looking through your binoculars backwards, but within our patch, no dots, no Purps. Not only aren't there any Purple Sandpipers wintering with us this year, but there are actually no records of Purple Sandpiper on the patch EVER!  I think we all know there probably have been Purple Sands here before, surely some have at least flown past?  But no one has seen any and that's what counts...

Anyway, one of my new years resolutions was to resolve this problem, and get Purple Sandpiper on the patch list.  For me the best chance has got to be the coastline east of the river mouth at Axmouth.  I tried for the second time this year earlier today, although the tide didn't go down as much as usual so far fewer rocks were exposed, the potential was still there...

Yet again though I drew a blank. And that's despite the extra help from four more legs...

We do have other bits of Purple Sandpiper-looking coastline, Seaton Hole for example, and around Beer Head.  But what I think makes these particular rocks the most likely option is that this is the only part of our rocky shoreline that regularly has wading birds on, even on today's few exposed rocks were two Oystercatchers and two Curlew.  It's not many I know, but in my experience birds attract birds - even if it is just four!

Knowing how unpredictable this birding game can be, when we do finally get a Purple Sand here it will probably be in with a flock of Dunlin feeding on Black Hole Marsh!  

Finally, sorry this hasn't come sooner, but Happy New folks. I really hope 2016 is a good and prosperous year for you all....not to mention bird-filled of course!

Move Over February, March Is Here

Hello all, I'm back!  Not been anywhere mind, just haven't had much to blog about and no time to do it.  It won't be hard to sum up my February though... 

We had something of an invasion of Greylag Geese mid month, with a couple of different flocks dropping in on the Axe, the biggest being 22!  These records tied in nicely with an increase in Greylag sightings elsewhere along the south coast, so am certain they relate to genuine wild birds. Best guess is that they are Spanish wintering birds migrating back north. The first small group seen by Tim Wright didn't stay long at all, just one night, before flying off north. Only one lingered, one of the 22, it remained with the semi-resident Canada Geese until nearly the end of the month.  

The increase in temperature part way through the month seemed to fool the birds into thinking spring had come early. So many of the resident species started to sing, and sing well. It even encouraged a couple of the wintering warblers to break out in song, with both Blackcap and Chiffchaff giving it some nearer the end of the month.  

Beautiful blue skies at Lower Bruckland Ponds. You can just about see the white buds appearing on the willow to the right.

These white buds! Lovely to see.

So that's February. Thankfully March has already proved better...

The one I didn't see was an Iceland Gull found by Phil on 1st.  A great find really as there hasn't been many white-wingers about, although a few do seem to be appearing now.  March/April often proves the best months for white-wingers here, when birds that have been wintering south of us head back north.

The quality I did (finally!) see (third attempt!) was the Short-eared Owl  first seen by Mike Lock on Friday evening at Axmouth.  It was seen over the weekend, but it wasn't until this evening that I saw it. Well WE saw it, as Jess is a big Owl-fan, and this was the last of the five regular UK Owls that I needed to show her.  I have tried to show her Short-eared Owl before, just a month or so ago at Wyke Down, but we dipped spectacularly, so to get one on patch is magic. Although I have seen quite a few here over the years, they have pretty much all been passing migrants that have stayed between 5 mins and an hour, so I didn't for a second think I'd be able to get Jess on to one here. But I did, and flipping heck did we see it well. 

Within seconds of arriving at a sunny Axe Cliff Golf Course at 5pm today Dave Helliar pointed it out hunting over the rough grass, and about two minutes later it flew past us about 10 feet away! Despite only having my point and shoot Lumix in my hand on automatic mode, and in the same hand that I was holding the dogs lead, I somehow manage to fluke this...

What a beaut!

We watched it for another twenty minutes or so, and it showed very well almost continuously, but it didn't come that close again...

 
And here's a short video...

Jess kept saying after we dipped this one twice, and the Wyke Down disaster "it wasn't meant to be - when I do see one it will be extra special". She was dead right. I must learn to be this positive when it comes to dipping...